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At noon on 22 November 1963, Dallas dress manufacturer Abraham Zapruder and his secretary, Marilyn Sitzman, stood on the pedestal in front of the cupola overlooking Dealey Plaza and took the most famous film of all time, the Zapruder movie of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The Zapruder film is the only known film of the entire assassination. It is a silent, 8mm colour record of the Kennedy motorcade just before, during, and immediately after the shooting.

The two major investigations into the assassination, the Warren Commission in 1963-64 and the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1977-78, relied on it to answer questions about how the shooting happened.

Photograph by Charles Bronson who was standing on the other pedestal across the plaza.

But just how honest is this film? Has it been altered? If so, by whom? And, why?

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 2 ].

Governor Connally is now looking clearly and abruptly to his right, perhaps in response to the shot that hit Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy is still looking at the president. The right lapel of Connally’s suite exposes his right shirt. Kennedy is about to emerge from behind the freeway sign.

Zapruder Frame 223

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 3 ].

Z. Frame 224

Kennedy emerges from behind the freeway sign. Both his right hand and left hand are starting to reach for his throat. Note that the right hand is already at throat level and is above the left hand. He has been clearly hit before this frame

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 4 ].

Z – Frame 225

Kennedy’s right arm is up and he is reaching for his throat. His left hand and arm are also reaching up but are at a lower position than his right. The arms and hands are at approximately the same position as in frame 224. It is clear that Kennedy’s hands are reaching for his throat.

Mrs Connally is looking straight ahead. She was not looking to the rear [Compare her testimony to the Warren Commission.

Connally is turning back to his left, after hearing a shot, but he is not aware that Kennedy has been hit.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 5 ].

Zapruder Frame228

Connally now looks ahead, obviously not yet hit by a bullet that, when it did hit later, shattered his rib and fractured his right wrist bone. Kennedy’s reaction to having been hit continues. Mrs. Connally continues to look straight ahead.

This is important because Gerald Posner, in Case Closed, claimed that Kennedy and Connally were hit simultaneously at frame 224.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 6 ].

Zapruder Frame 232

Connally looks straight ahead, seemingly unaware that anything has happened. His white stetson hat is in his right hand. His right hand is held up to shoulder height, holding the brim of his hat.

The Warren Commission, the HSCA, Gerald Posner, claim that Connally had been hit eight frames before this point, the bullet passing through his chest, shattering a rib, inflicting multiple fractures in his wrist bone.

Was there a single gunman?

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 7 ].

Mrs. Connally has just begun to turn to her right so that her angle of vision encompasses both Kennedy and Connally. This is the first time she has turned round to look back, as she testified to the Warren Commission. It was probably at this frame, or in the preceding frame, that she saw Kennedy had been hit.

Zapruder Frame 233

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 8 ].

Zapruder frame 234

Connally looks straight ahead, seemingly unperturbed. This is the frame that Connally believes he was hit. His right shoulder begins to drop, indicating he’d been hit in the back of the shoulder. Mrs. Connally sees that Kennedy has been hit but is not yet aware that her husband has been hit.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 9 ].

Connally’s right shoulder is driven further downward. ‘Recoiled to the right” – as Mrs. Connally testified.

Zapruder Frame 235.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 10 ].

Zapruder Frame 238

Connally’s right shoulder is driven sharply down to his right. Note that the red flowers next to Mrs. Kennedy have become more visible. Mrs. Connally is now aware that her husband has been hit.

Mrs. Connally told ‘Life’ magazine in 1966: “As far as the first two shots go, my memory is divided into four distinct events. First I heard the shot, or a strange loud noise – I’m not that expert on rifles –back behind us. Then next I turned to my right and saw the President gripping at his throat. Then I turned to John (Conally), and I heard the second shot that hit John (Connally)…. I must have been looking right at him when it hit because I saw him recoil to the right….. So you see I had time to look at the President after he was already hit, then turn and see John hit by a second shot. Then, of course, he slumped, and I reached to pull him toward me.”

The Warren Commission claims that this frame was the was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving. latest point that Connally could have been hit (if he were hit only once). Kennedy was probably hit in frame 210. This would mean a maximum of 1.79 seconds had passed between the two shots being fired. Therefore, inasmuch, as the alleged assassin’s rifle took a minimum of 2.3 seconds to fire and reload with the bolt-action rifle, there must have been a second gunman.

JFK: Zapruder

Film [ 11 ].

Zapruder Frame 242.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 12 ].

Zapruder Frame 264

Kellerman has now turned 45% to his left,perhaps saying something to Greer (the driver).Not once until now has Kellerman looked back. How incredible for a top Secret Service agent! At least four seconds have elapsed since the sound of the first shot.

Mrs Connally is still looking at Kennedy and Connally. Kennedy’s arms are now lowered well below their maximum position in frame 232. They have not been locked in the “Thorburn Position’ as claimed by Gerald Posner.

Kellerman now looks over his left shoulder for the first time. His number-one rule by Secret Service oath is to use his body to shield the president, yet only now he looks back, with no indication whatsoever to make any physical move to protect the president or the governor.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 13 ].

Kellerman

Zapruder Frame 282

Secret Serviceman Kellerman is now clearly looking back at Kennedy. Kellerman was interviewed by FBI agents on 27 November, when he told the FBI that when shots rang out he turned towards the rear and “observed President Kennedy with his left hand in back of him appearing to be reaching a point on his right shoulder.” At the time he made this statement he apparently did not have access to the Zapruder film, which clearly shows that when Kennedy was first wounded he raised both hands sharply towards his throat and in no way did he reach up and extend his left hand behind his back. If Kellerman was telling the truth,it lends evidence that the Zapruder film was altered by removal of frames.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 14 ].

Greer

Zapruder Frame 302

Greer (the driver) almost looking straight ahead. Note the blur of the legs of the two women standing on the left and the woman in the background. This indicates that that Zapruder is panning his camera to match the speed of the limo because the picture of the limo is in relatively sharp focus.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 15 ].

Zapruder Frame 303

Greer suddenly looks back. This is a turn of 105 degrees in one frame, or 0.0546 second, a rotational speed of 1,923 degrees per second. This is equivalent to 5.3 complete revolutions per second.

The fastest known human response is the blink of an eye which is equivalent to only one frame on Zapruder’s camera. The 105 degree head turn of Greer in one frame indicates that frames are missing between frames 302 and 303.

Further proof of missing frames between 302 and 303 is the lack of blur of Greer’s head. The head should be a complete blur at a rotational speed 1,923 degrees per second.

Comparing frame 303 to 302, note that the blur of the legs of the two women on the left and the woman in the background has now disappeared, yet the limousine in frame 303 is still in the same good focus. This has occurred in one frame. This indicates that the limousine is standing still or moving very slowly in 303 because the women in the background and the limousine are both in good focus.

Numerous witnesses testified that the limo slowed down to almost a stop, or stopped completely. The limo is almost at a complete stop in 303 and a block of frames was removed between 302 and 303.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 16 ].

Zapruder Frame 304

Greer continues to look back and will remain looking back at Kennedy until after the fatal head shot at frame 313. Only on frame 315 does Greer start to turn forward. He clearly was looking at Kennedy during the fatal shot, yet he testified that he did not see the fatal shot.

It is about this point, or a few frames later, that Mary Moorman snapped a photograph with her Poloroid camera {See……..].

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 17 ].

Zapruder Frame 312

Greer looks back. Connally has apparently partially recovered; he is now more erect. Kennedy’s head seems to accelerate forward about one inch to two inches between frames 312 and 313.

This is the frame where Josiah Thompson [‘Six Seconds in Dallas’] says that Kennedy received his fatal head shot from the rear, to be followed almost simultaneously in frame 313 by a second shot to the right temple from the the right front.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 18 ]?

Zapruder Frame 313

Here we see an apparent explosion of bloody matter out of the right temple, forward of Kennedy’s right ear. There are two red streaks that point upward. Most researchers consider this to be the fatal head shot; others consider it to be a forgery in which the the eruption of blood was either matted or painted in. And one forensic blood splatter expert, Sheryl Pool Gutierrez, considers it to be back pattern from a bullet entering the right temple.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 19 ].

Zapruder frame 314

A strange blob appears on the right side of Kennedy’s face. In the following frames this blob will inextricably move around Kennedy’s face, changing size and shape. What is this? Where did it come from? There is no visible wound in the back or top or side of Kennedy’s head. Autopsy photos show Kennedy’s face intact. Yet this photo seems to show some matter coming from his right cheek.

Kellerman is looking straight ahead. Greer is still looking back, observing the aftermath of the fatal head wound. The limousine has not yet speeded up.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 20 ].

Zapruder Frame 315

Here the mysterious blob on Kennedy’s face is not originating from the right side, rear and top of the head, which would be necessary to be consistent with the Bethesda autopsy photograph of the head wound. The blob is now huge, almost as large as Kennedy’s head. It is a double blob, obscuring the right side of Mrs. Kennedy’s face.

This mysterious blob has been considered by some researchers to be a flap of scalp that was blown out of the right top of Kennedy’s head and is hanging down over his cheek. However, if that were the case, there should be an equally large portion of Kennedy’s scalp missing in this photograph. This is not the case. What explains this unusual phenomenon?

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 21 ].

Zapruder Frame 316

Greer is still looking back at Kennedy; Greer has just begun to turn to the front.

In his report to Warren Commission, Greer failed to say that he witnessed the fatal head shot: :

Mr. Specter: And describe or indicate how far you turned your head to the right at that time?

Mr. Greer: Just so that my eyes over, caught the Governor, I could see, I couldn’t see the President. I just could see the Governor. I made a quick glance and back again.

Mr. Specter: Were you able to see anything of President Kennedy as you glanced to the rear?

Mr. Greer: No, sir, I didn’t see anything of the President. I didn’t look. I wasn’t far enough around to see the President. Was he lying? If so, why?

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 22 ].

Zapruder Frame 317

Greer now turns to look forward. He has made a 115 degree turn in one frame – 0.0546 second. This is an extremely rapid movement [the blinking of an eye is the fastest known known response– about 0.6 second] Have some frames of the film been removed? If so, why?

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 23 ].

Zapruder Frame 321

Kennedy’s head and body are now back against the rear of the seat; a backward head movement of about 20 cm has taken place in about one-half second. Most researchers have concluded that this rapid acceleration backward is evidence of a shot striking Kennedy’s head from the front, and proof of a second gunman, but the new evidence of frame removal calls into question this view.

Connally is now starting to collapse. Some researchers believe that he was hit slightly before or after this frame, possibly for a second time.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 24 ].

Zapruder Frame 335

Jacqueline Kennedy, with her mouth open in horror, attempts to put back in place a piece of skull in the wound to the rear of the President’s head. Look closely and you will see her white gloved hand behind a flap of scalp and hair.

Warren Commission: And all I remember seeing is my husband, he had this sort of quizzical look on his face, and his hand was up, it must have been his left hand. And I just turned and looked at him, I could see a piece of his skull and I remembered it was flesh coloured.

Later, Mrs. Kennedy desribed the location of the head wound but it was deleted from the published report: “I was trying to hold his hair on. But from the front there was nothing. I suppose there must have been. But from the back you could see, you know, you were trying to hold his hair on, and his skull on.“ This is dramatic evidence of an exit wound in the rear of the head.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 25 ].

Zapruder Frame 343

Jacqueline Kennedy reacts in anguish and horror and starts to climb onto the trunk of the limousine as she looks at John Kennedy just after the fatal head wound. He has fallen into her lap. In her testimony to the Warren Commission, she said:

And then he sort of did this: (indicating), put his hand to his forehead and fell in my lap. And then I just remember falling on him and saying, “Oh, no, no, no,” I mean “Oh, my God, they have shot my husband.” And “I love you, Jack,” I remember I was shouting. And just being down in the car with his head in my lap. And it seemed an eternity. You know, then, there were pictures later on of me climbing out the back. But I don’t remember it all.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Film [ 26 ].

Zapruder Frame 355

Jacqueline Kennedy climbs to the trunk of the limousine. Clinton Hill, the Secret Service agent whose hand you cans see on the left, thought she was trying to retrieve part of her husband’s head.

Hill stated to the Warren Commission: “As I lay over the top of the back seatr I noticed a portion of the President’s head on the right rear side was missing and that he was bleeding profusely. Part of his brain was gone. I saw part of his skull with hair on it lying in the seat.

JFK: Zapruder was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Refering to Zapruder frames 315, 316, 317.

Shots simulating Secret Service Agent William Greer’s turn between Zapruder frames 315-317. Each photo is equivalent to 1/30 seconds, which is equivalent to 0.61 Zapruder frames.

These sequences, taken on an 8 mm camera, of an athletes, are each equivalent to one Zapruder frame – was it possible for Greer to turn so rapidly as seen in the Zapruder film?

Street People? was running along Elm Street watching the presidential limousine when she heard a shot or explosion. She then stopped and looked back towards the TSBD. Kennedy is still waving.

Was the Zapruder Film altered?

Along the north curb of Elm, the Z-film shows a group of spectators who stand single-file at the curb, almost motionless for about a minute without changing their positions …… another group of Street People are seen standing in the Elm Street crosswalk at the intersection of Elm and Houston. All of them remain virtually motionless. Moreover, they all appear to be White, although other photos show many blacks in both groups.